


Roll For Seduction

by sin_tm



Category: Day6 (Band), K-pop
Genre: Day6 - Freeform, Fluff, Jaehyungparkian, M/M, Slice of Life, day6 imagines
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-19
Updated: 2017-09-20
Packaged: 2018-12-31 18:20:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12138369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sin_tm/pseuds/sin_tm
Summary: A new clerk is at the comic shop where Jae’s D&D group meets, and Jae can’t keep his eyes off him. Comic Shop/Dungeons and Dragons AU. Fluff.





	1. "I'd like to roll for seduction,"

**Author's Note:**

> I was on a 12 hour drive to North Carolina and listened almost exclusively to The Adventure Zone Podcast on the way back, and thus, this was born. You can also find this work on my tumblr, @sageok.

Jae couldn’t help but notice the cute new clerk at the local comic shop. He was sitting at a table in the back corner of the establishment, and he had a clear view of the checkout counter the boy was standing behind. Jae definitely would’ve noticed the boy if he had been there before. The only other employee there, Janette, was a middle aged woman in her forties who spent more time on smoke breaks than actually working. As a result of this, Jae had probably helped more customers than she had. Sometimes he wondered if she even knew anything about comics. The boy seemed at least somewhat interested in the job, since he had stayed consistently behind the counter, waiting for customers the full 2 hours Jae and his D&D group had been at the store. He was a taller than average boy, with several ear piercings and dirty blond hair that hung in his eyes. He was wearing black jeans and a garish orange T-shirt with the store’s logo over a white long sleeve shirt. He almost made it look good. The boy was perched on a stool behind the counter, idly staring into space. This was understandable, as no one really came to the place besides him and his friends, at least not at 8pm on a Tuesday. They were usually relatively undisturbed during their weekly D&D sessions, people only occasionally dropping by to find the latest Walking Dead or Archie comic. Jae preferred it this way, not exactly wanting to broadcast to the world his love of possibly the world’s most nerdy hobby.

“Jae, I said it’s your turn.” Sungin, the group’s dungeon master, waved his hand in front of Jae’s face from his spot at the table next to him, snapping Jae out of his thoughts.

“Oh, right, where were we again?” Jae asked, a little embarrassed at how spaced out he’d been all night. Sungjin just rolled his eyes.

“Dowoon just killed two of the demons, there’s two left, one is bloodied and one is almost full health.” He recapped, while Wonpil let out a small snigger at Jae’s lack of focus.

“Okay, uh, I’ll hit the bloodied one with a fireball.” He said, rolling a dice. “I’ve got a 16, plus spellcasting modifier, twenty-one.” He said. Sungjin consulted his notes for a moment before responding.

“That’s going to finish him off,” He said, crossing something off a list on a piece of paper in front of him. “But you’ve still got the last one to worry about. Wonpil you’re next.” He said, glancing at the younger boy.

“What does this one look like?” Wonpil asked.

“What does it matter?” Jae exclaimed. He was forever tired of Wonpil wasting their time with unnecessary details. Wonpil however, claimed it was ‘integral to the experience’.

“Just like all the rest of them, like an outline of a man, like a shadow.” Sungjin, who was always more patient with the boy, replied

“Okay I’d like to tell him that he’s outnumbered, and he should just leave if he know’s what’s good for him.” Wonpil said. He always attempted the nonviolent approach first, though Sungjin rarely let him get away with it.

“He laughs in your face and tells you he’s going to take you all out one by one.”

“Ooh, where is he taking me,” Jae comments dryly, to the amusement of Wonpil. Sunjin, on the other hand, just rolls his eyes, nodding at Dowoon to indicate it’s his turn.

“I’m going to hit him with my sword,” Dowoon mumbles, rolling two dice and quickly adding them together. “Twenty-two on attack.”

“Damn, you guys are getting such good rolls today,” Sungjin replies, doing a quick calculation on his scratch paper. “This one’s defense is pretty high, but that’s still a good hit.” Dowoon nodded at this, giving a small smile. “Alright Jae, what’ll it be.”

“I wanna roll for seduction to see where he’s taking me on the date.” Jae replies, his voice serious.”He said he was gonna take me out, he promised.”

“Come on Jae..”

“No I’m actually serious, I’ve got to give myself a seduction modifier.” Jae says, reaching for the appropriate dice.

“God, don’t do that.” Sungjin sighs. “I’ll give it to you under charisma, okay?”

“Sweet,” Jae replies, rolling his twenty sided dice. As soon as it rolls to a stop, Jae’s face falls.”

“What is it?” Wonpil says, leaning in to look at Jae’s dice.

“It’s a critical miss..” Jae replies, staring in dismay at the number dice. Wonpil and Dowoon both give a loud laugh.

“Alright, you give the demon your best pickup line. He takes takes one look at your face and throws up all over your boots.” Sungjin said, giving Jae a smug look.

“Damnit,” He exclaims, hitting his hand against the table, rattling the precariously balanced papers and drinks littering the space. “Not again.” And as he says this, Jae hears a loud snort from the front counter. He snaps his head up just in time to see the new boy’s head turn away from his direction, his hand covering his mouth. No one else at the table seemed to notice this through their laughter, and play continued, Sungjin gesturing to Wonpil to play his turn. Jae however, was once again distracted by the new boy. He was now more composed, staring out of the window with a passive expression. Had he been watching their table? Watching him? Thoughts about the boy raced through Jae’s mind, and he found himself growing a little warm at being noticed by the cute new guy.

Soon enough, Jae’s attention was pulled back into the game as Dowoon slayed the offending daemon and they moved on to the next stage of the puzzle Sungjin had prepared for them. The new guy was always in the back of Jae’s mind, though. He glanced up at him every few minutes, trying to catch him staring, but was unsuccessful in his attempts.

 

~~~~~

 

“Natural twenty,” Dowoon called, triumph evident in his voice.

“Oh my god!” Wonpil exclaimed.

“Pfft,” Jae muttered. Dowoon had been getting amazing rolls all night, and now he was going to finish off the final boss. Jae had been hoping to be the one to do that, in the hopes that it might catch new boy’s attention again.

“Yup, that about does it,” Sunjin replied, crossing several things off his list. “You decimated him, jeez.” Dowoon just have a smug nod and leaned back in his chair as Wonpil started congratulating him. Jae huffed again, slouching lower in his chair. “That’s all I have time for today, we’ll dole out loot and experience next week before we start the next arc. I’ve got a lot of cool stuff planned for that.” Sunjin declared as he stood up, collecting his papers. Being the DM, he had by far the most out of all of them. Plus additional copies of everyone’s stats, to ensure no one in the group was cheating. Though Jae was really the only one who needed to be checked on.

“Nice! I can’t wait,” Wonpil called, standing up as well, stretching his arms with a contented sigh.

“Need a ride home? I can drop you off.” Sungjin asked, stuffing his papers back into his bag.

“Sure, that’d be great,” Wonpil replied. “Bye guys!” He said, waving at Jae and Dowoon.

“Later nerds,” Jae called as the two boys made their way out of the shop. Jae didn’t bother looking after them, instead started attempting to collect his papers, which had become hopelessly scattered, as Dowoon scrolled through his phone.

“You guys are playing dungeons and dragons, right?” The voice surprised Jae, and he snapped his head up again. The new boy was standing a few feet from the table, craning his head a little to get a glimpse at Jae’s messy character sheets. Then he turned his brown eyes to Jae’s own, giving him an inquisitive look. Jae froze, unable to come up with one witty thing to say.

“Yeah,” Dowoon replied in absence of anything from Jae. “You ever played?”

“Nah, I was never into that kinda stuff. I always thought it was some kind of board game.”

“Well I guess it is in a way, or, it can be. We don’t play it like that though.” Dowoon replied, glancing at Jae. The younger boy was obviously concerned at Jae’s silence. Normally he would’ve jumped at the chance to explain D&D in excessive detail. “Right Jae?”

“Uh, yeah, I guess.” Jae mentally kicked himself at his awkwardness. He usually wasn’t one to get flustered.

“You guys seem to have a lot of fun,” The new boy said, his gaze now on Dowoon. Jae was partly relieved, but mostly he wanted to be the center of this boy’s attention.

“Yeah, it’s cool. Jae and Sungjin, he’s our DM, got me into it.” Dowoon replied, gesturing back to Jae.

“Your name’s Jae?” The new boy asked.

“Yeah, that’s me. And this is Dowoon. The other one is Wonpil.” Jae said, gesturing vaguely to the door. He was becoming slightly more comfortable, getting over his initial fluster.

“Cool, I’m Brian by the way.” He said, taking his hand out of his jeans pocket to give a small wave. Dowoon seemed to have finally caught onto what was happening to Jae, and stood up, collecting his equally disorganized papers.

“I’m going to head home now, See you next week Jae, and nice to meet you Brian.” He rumbled his his deep voice as he set off for the door.

“Nice meeting you too!” Brian called after him, giving him another small wave. Have was beginning to think it might be a nervous habit of his. “So, what are all those papers for?” He asked, looking once again at Jae’s papers.

“Oh, well this is a character sheet,” he said, picking up the paper with the most writing on it. Notes were scribbled over every inch of the paper, almost nothing was contained inside the boxed printed on the page, and post it notes had been stapled on to allow even more information. “It’s got the name of my character and all his stats, all the spells he knows. Plus all the items he’s had and has now. And just miscellaneous information. It’s kind of disorganized because I don’t make a new one every level like Wonpil or something, I just write it on top of other stuff. But I think it’s cool you can see how much he’s grown.” Jae trailed off as he realized Brian probably didn’t care. Though as he looked back at him, he saw an expression of interest on his face. This gave him a spark of hope.

“So you level up like in a video game?” Brian asked, tilting his head to the side. Like a puppy, Jae thought.

“Yeah, it’s kinda like the ultimate choose your own adventure game you know? Like I know it’s super nerdy, but it’s fun.”

“No definitely! It seems fun, you guys seem to have a lot of fun.” Brian quickly reassured him. Jae felt his face get a little warm again.

“Oh, I’m sorry if we got a little too loud, we don’t want to disturb any of the paying customers,” He said sheepishly, giving a small laugh.

“Pfft, what customers?” Brian asked, rolling his eyes. “I’ve only been here three days and I don’t think I’ve seen another person besides you guys or Jeanette,” He lamented.

“Yeah, I don’t know if I’ve seen one in here either.” Jae said with a smirk. He was starting to settle into comfortable conversation with this new boy.

However, just Jae’s luck, as soon as he said this the shop door opened with a tinkle of the bell placed above the door. He could’ve sworn he heard Brian swear under his breath, but he couldn’t be sure if he was imagining things

“Excuse me, do you have this comic?” The patron called in an obnoxious voice, too loud for the small shop.

“I’ll be right with you sir,” Brian replied in a rehearsed, customer service voice. He turned back to Jae. “I’d like to learn more about this stuff,” He grabbed Jae’s pen, (a pen he’d stolen from the bank, the establishments logo emblazoned on the side. Jae hoped Brian wouldn’t notice this detail.) And flipped over Jae’s character sheet, scribbling something down before quickly flipping it back. “Here’s my number, would you be able to text me where I could find these?”

“I mean you can find em on the internet anywhere, if you look up D&D sheets..” Jae trailed off as he noticed the annoyed look of the customer, who was impatiently tapping a piece of paper against the front counter. “But yeah, I could text you.”

“Cool, I’d like that,” Brian said, grinning wide at Jae and making his stomach flip. “I’ll talk to you soon hopefully,” He said, giving him a final wave, and hurried off to help the man at the counter. Once again he heard put on his fake happy voice to appease the irritated man at the counter.

Jae turned his attention back to his papers, taking his time gathering them up and carefully packing them in his bag. Maybe D&D wasn’t so bad after all.


	2. “In your dreams halfling bitch,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Brian's first session! I didn't put too much actual gameplay in cause ik it can get tedious. Enjoy x

Jae has been too busy to think the past week. He’s had so many exams it hurts to think about. He’s slept maybe ten hours total since last week, and he’s running on caffeine and stress. Never has he been more glad to plop down in his regular chair at his regular meeting place and find out what batshit adventure Sungjin dreamt up this time. He sat down heavily in his chair and sighs in contentment. Sungjin is the only one already at the table, and he gives Jae a distracted hello as he sits down, too busy rummaging through an even bigger pile of notes than usual.

“Woah, how long is this campaign going to be?” Jae asks, noticing how dense some of the papers are with Sungjin’s impeccable handwriting. 

“Not as long as it is complex,” Sungjin says, glancing up from his sorting. “How are you? I haven’t talked to you all week, it seems like you’re drowning in work.” Jae snorts at this, reaching for his backpack as he responds.

“Pretty much, I haven’t slept much all week, and I had an exam yesterday that I don’t really remember taking. Plus I had to rely on my phone’s calendar to remember to come here because I didn’t even know what day it was.” He says as he pulls his papers out of his bag and returns it to the floor.

“So that’s why you haven’t been responding to my texts. You shouldn’t isolate yourself like that.” He scolds. “At least exam season is almost over.”

“You can say that again,” Jae muttered. What Sungjin had said wasn’t all true though. Jae had seen his texts and had been to tired to respond to most of them, but he had made an effort to let his friends know he was still alive, and he had texted Sungin a bit just yesterday. Plus, earlier in the week he had texted Brian a link to a site where he could find character sheets, and another one explaining the concept of D&D. Brian had seemed interested, and asked a few questions about the mechanics. Jae took this as a sign that Brian didn’t think he was a complete nerd, which was good. The two of them had also shared some casual conversation, and Jae learned more details about the new boy. He was from Canada. He was an accounting major, which puzzled Jae. It didn’t seem to fit his personality in any way. And he played the bass, which definitely fit. As thoughts of the boy fluttered around his mind, Jae looked around the shop. There was no one currently at the counter, which usually wasn’t surprising, but Jae could’ve sworn Brian told him he was working today. He felt disappointment settle in his chest, he would be lying if he said he wasn’t looking forward to stealing glances at him in between rolls, maybe even staying late again to teach him more about the game. Just as Jae started mentally kicking himself for getting his hopes up, the door behind the counter marked Employees Only opened, and Brian stepped out.

He looked even more breathtaking than usual. His hair was cleaned up a bit, and he now wore a grey plaid over his uniform T-shirt, covering up some of the garish orange color. Brian noticed Jae almost immediately, and gave him a broad smile and a wave before heading over to the counter. Jae returned the smile and gave a half-hearted wave, feeling a little stupid as he did so but not wanting to seem unkind. Jae ducked his head back down, mindlessly shuffling his papers, grateful for the distraction. He lets out another deep sigh, glad he hadn’t gotten his hopes up for nothing.

Suddenly, a loud thump shook the table, and Jae and Sungjin look up in surprise. Brian is standing next to the table, his hands on a pile of three thick books, and a handful of papers, which presumably he had just dropped onto the desk. “I want to join your game.” He announces, looking expectantly between Sungjin and Jae. Both of them stare in surprise at the pile of books Brian had presented them with. Sungjin recovers first.

“Yeah, sure, we could use another player. Do you, know how to play?” He questions, giving Brian a confused look. The newest boy gave a nod, gesturing to the pile of books.

“Jae sent me some helpful stuff, and I found these books in the back. Ive skimmed them a bit and I can use em for reference if i need to. I’ve already done the whole character creation thing, so you don’t have to worry about that. And I promise I didn’t cheat, I can do it over if you don’t believe me though.” He offers the papers to Sungjin, who looks through them with interest.

“Woah, you really did do your research,” He mumbles, quickly scanning them. “It looks like some of this is from the fourth edition though,” He said, pointing out a few instances. Brian’s smile falters for a moment.

“Oh, I’m sorry, here let me see.” He says.

“No no,” Sungin butted in, “It’s not that big of a thing. Jae’s the expert, have him look it over, he can verify your numbers and stuff too. Let me just check my notes to make sure there’s enough wiggle room in the upcoming arc,” He says, sliding the papers to Jae as he returns to his notebook. Brian nods and sits next to Jae, sliding him his papers and the books beneath. Brian is sitting in Wonpil’s seat, but Jae decides Brian doesn’t need to know that detail.

“Alright, let me see,” Jae begins, taking the papers from him.

 

~~~~~

 

By the time Wonpil and Dowoon show up ten minutes later, Jae has thrown aside all of Brian’s books after finding out none of them were made this decade. He also weeded out a few unnecessary papers, and double checked all Brian’s math. He did this more so Brian would keep sitting so close to him, leaning over his shoulder slightly to see what he was doing than for lack of trust in him.

“Hey, sorry we’re late!” Wonpil calls, out of breath as he and Dowoon enter the shop and quickly cross to the table.

“We missed the bus so we had to walk from the dorms.” Dowoon adds, pulling up another chair to sit beside Jae, gesturing for Wonpil to take his seat. Thankfully, Wonpil only gives Jae a slightly questioning glance before sitting down in his new chair.

“Hey Brian, what’s up?” Wonpil asks. Jae guesses he was probably a little ticked that his seat had been stolen, but he would get over it.

“Brian’s going to be joining us this arc,” Sungin says, looking up from his notes. “There are a couple more personalized things a little later in the story, but an extra player wouldn’t get in the way or anything.” This seemed to trigger something in Brian, as his face fell a touch and he pulled back from Jae, sitting properly in his chair now.

“Oh definitely, I don’t want to cause you guys any trouble,” He said quickly.

“Don’t worry about it!” Sungjin said, waving his hand dismissively. “We could use some fresh blood to stop Jae from completely murdering Wonpil all the time. Plus Jae told me you seemed really interested and I was the one who told him he should invite you.” Jae grew a little warm at this, as he hadn’t exactly invited Brian, being too nervous of seeming too desperate, even though Sungjin had said he could.

“Okay, that’s good. Still, feel free to kick me out if i’m bothering you.”

“Don’t worry, we would’ve kicked Jae out a long time ago if that was the criteria,” Dowoon says from across the table.

“Hey!” Jae calls, shooting his friend a pointed glance. What was with all the ‘teasing today?

“Not to sound rude, I definitely agree with Sungjin, we could use another person for sure, and you seem really cool,” Wonpil starts, “But isn’t this like, your job? Won’t you get in trouble?”

“Pfft, with who? Janette?” Brian snorts. “She hasn’t spoken a word to me since I got here. I have no idea what she does or where she is half the time anyway. If anyone needs to be checked out I’ll go help them. It’ll be fine.”He finishes, and Wonpil nods in agreement.

“Wait, do you have any dice?” Jae asks, mentally hitting himself for not remembering possibly the most important part of the game. Brian’s face falls again, a little more obvious this time.

“Oh yeah, you’ll need the full set of seven. We play using all of them.” Sungjin says, looking expectantly at Brian.

“Crap, I, might’ve forgotten about that.” He admits, looking down at his papers. “Let me see if we have anything in the back.” He says, pushing his chair back to stand up.

“It’s alright, I’m sure Jae would be fine sharing, that way he can teach you the ropes.” Dowoon chimes in, unable to hide a small smirk from creeping across his face.

“Oh, would that be okay? I don’t wanna take up any more of your guy’s time looking for them.” Brian asks sheepishly, turning to face Jae.

“Yeah,” He stutters, slightly disbelieving that Dowoon had said that. Brian didn’t seem to be paying Dowoon any attention though, hopefully he hadn’t noticed the slight innuendo. “Yeah definitely that’s fine. They can get a little confusing.”

“Great!” Brian chimes, giving Jae a smile and sliding his chair back in. With the addition of another chair, the space around the table was slightly more cramped. Plus, Brian had scooted his chair a little closer to Jae so he could see what he was doing with his papers and dice. If it had been anyone else Jae would’ve been annoyed, but he found he got tiny bursts of butterflies whenever their arms brushed or when their knees bumped together.

“Alright, everything’s sorted then,” Sungin said, cracking his knuckles. “Jae will teach Brian as we go if there’s something you don’t understand, and we’ll bump you up in level a fair bit so everyone’s at least fairly close in level.” He looked at everyone at the table in turn, and they all nodded back in agreement. “Let’s get this show on the road then,”

 

~~~~~

 

“No! He can’t do that!” Wonpil exclaims, turning pleading eyes to Sungjin. Jae is hunched over the table, unable to stop snickering. The session was coming to a close, and the first enemy of the night had been defeated after many long winded explanations of plot. Jae had to admit he was impressed, Sungjin had really outdone himself this time, the plot was unexpected and intriguing. Brian seemed just as enraptured as the rest of them, and caught on fairly quickly. He was even successful in helping them take down a medium difficulty enemy. His character was useful, a dark elf who balanced out the rest of them team nicely, bringing some extra bulk to their physical attack, since both Wonpil and Jae had next to none. (There previous team consisted of Dowoon’s tanky human fighter, Wonpil’s agile halfling healer, and Jae’s charismatic eleven mage.) They had all worked together fairly well, until Jae had attempted to steal previous loot out of Wonpil’s character’s bag while he was occupied.

“Well, technically there’s nothing in game or house rules about that.” Sungjin said, scratching his head in thought.

“Alright well I wanna stop him,” Wonpil replies, shooting Jae a glare.

“In your dreams halfling bitch,” Jae manages between stifled laughter. This elicited a smirk from Dowoon and another full on snort from Brian, and Jae felt a small surge of pride.

“Well, Jae you’re going to have to roll a stealth check, and Wonpil’s going to have to roll a perception check.” Sungjin decides, checking his papers to find their modifiers for those skills. Wonpil nods, rolling his twenty sided dice and adding his modifiers in a flash.

“Sixteen,” He reports, triumphant. Jae rolls his eyes as he takes his dice back from Brian’s side of their shared space, making a quick promise to the universe that really, after this he was going to try and be a good person if he just got this one roll, as he tossed the dice with a flourish. It spun in a high ark before landing a little farther away than Jae would’ve liked. Leaning over the table he caught a glimpse of the number.

“Fifteen! Plus my stealth modifier is seventeen!” He cheers, falling heavily back in his chair.

“No! Come on!” Wonpil turned to the DM again. “Can Dowoon make a perception check for me too? To see if he sees it?” Sungjin nods, but Dowoon interrupts him before he can continue.

“My perception modifier is negative 4, you guys are supposed to be the perception geniuses. I can try but..” He trails off, giving Wonpil a shrug.

“My perception is like, plus four,” Brian pipes up, searching his character sheet. “Want me to try?”

“No! Don’t you dare!” Jae hollers, hitting Brian’s arm playfully and already collapsing back into snickers.

“Please?” Wonpil gives Brian a pleading look, to which Brian let out a laugh, the smile which had been plastered to his face since the beginning of the game only widening.

“Sure,” He says, taking the dice back from Jae and shaking it around in his hands for a solid few seconds before dropping it. Jae leans over Brian’s shoulder to see, and Wonpil leans over the table, his face as serious as it had ever been. “Fifteen for me too, that makes it nineteen with perception added,”

“Yup, you notice.” Sungjin announces. “Are you gonna let Wonpil know?” Brian considers this for a moment as both Wonpil and Jae clamber to shout their reasons why he should side with them.

“I nudge Wonpil, but quietly, so Jae’s character doesn’t see since he’s too busy stealing.” Brian finally decides, trying his best not to make either one of their character’s mad at him at the very least.

“No! You traitor! With my own dice too,” Jae laments, but Brian just laughs.

“Okay, I’d like to kill him,” Wonpil declares, not looking at Jae.

“He can’t do that,” Jae replies.

“I’ve gotta side with Jae here. I can’t in good conscious condone the murder of another player.” Sungjin admits.

“Oh you wish you could kill me,”

“But you’ll condone thievery!” Wonpil says incredulously.

“I’m the DM here,” Sungin says, a note of finality in his voice. “Dowoon you’re next.”

“I’ll get you back for this,” Jae mumbles to Brian as Dowoon details his next actions. “I never forget crimes committed against me,”

“I’m sure I can get you to forgive me,” Brian mumbles back, glancing at Jae with a proud smirk. One look into Brian’s deep brown eyes, and Jae realizes he’s probably right.


	3. “Keep it down, I had to steal this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Final chapter! This is my first chaptered fic in a while, i hope it flows ok. feedback is always appreciated, and I hope you enjoy reading x

Brian: hey,, so remember the other day when i said there wasn’t any problem with me playing d&d with you guys?

 

Jae: Yeah..

 

Brian: So there’s been a development..

 

Jae remembered the conversation vividly as he sat perched on his dorm bed in his tiny dorm room. After he had told his roommate Kevin that he was going to be hosting his D&D group for a few hours after one of their members had been banned from the comic shop they had used previously, he couldn’t get out the door fast enough. He had no interest in Jae’s nerdier hobbies, but knew it was going to be loud and cramped and had wisely headed to his girlfriends house for the night. Jae sensed that this wasn’t too much of an inconvenience for him, as he would take any excuse he could to stay over at his girlfriend’s. Jae didn’t blame him. Kevin was probably getting laid tonight while Jae played a roll playing game with his comic shop friends. Even without him, it would still be a challenge. Their dorm room was cramped and stuffy, the concrete walls doing such a good job keeping the heat in that Jae’s desk fan could barely compete with the sweltering California weather. 

 

And now tonight he was going to have five people cramped in his tiny room, which was mostly filled with his and Kevin’s desks and their bunk bed. Thankfully Jae had the bottom bunk, so that could be used for seating, and they could probably move both chairs and Jae’s desk to create something vaguely resembling their old haunt. Brian had tried to insist they should try and go back to the comic shop without him, but Sungjin had outright refused. As the DM, he was the unofficial leader of the group, and after consulting with all the members privately, he had concluded that they all appreciated his presence enough to move their place of meeting. In absence of another obvious spot at a central location, Sungjin had suggested they take turns meeting at their own residences until they could find something better. For most of them this meant their dorm room, and after picking straws Jae was reveled as the first host. 

 

As he fidgeted nervously on the edge of his mattress, Jae looked around at his dorm room. He had spent a half hour cleaning up his side, which was definitely the messier one. For once all his clothes were shoved into his side of the closet, his bed was made, and his desk was free empty food wrappers and haphazard flashcards. It looked clean enough, and he hoped Brian wasn’t too much of a clean freak like Sungjin, who would most definitely have something to say about the state of the room, even though it had been improved. A knock on the door interrupted his worries, and Jae shot up to answer it, almost smashing his head on Kevin’s bunk in the process. Jae crossed his fingers behind his back, praying to whoever was listening that it wasn’t Brian. He could not handle sitting on his bed with Brian, alone, for who knows how long. Not that Jae didn’t want him there, he really really did. That was the problem. Thankfully, Sungjin was the one standing on the other side of the door. Jae let out a breath of relief and moved aside, letting his friend in.

 

“You’re the first one here, as usual.” Jae said as Sunjin walked in, setting his backpack down near the door and surveying the room.

 

“Hey, I like to be punctual, unlike some people.” He replied. “But Jesus, I forgot how small your dorm is. How’s this gonna work?” He asked.

 

“Well, I was thinking we could move my desk in front of my bed, and then move my and Kevin’s desk chairs on the other side. Then the rest of us would sit on my bed.” Sungjin pondered this for a moment, surveying Jae’s tiny bed. (Which, granted, was about six inches too short for him, his feet had always dangled over the side.Three people might be too much for it’s cheep frame to handle. (Hell, he didn’t even know if it could fit two people.)

 

“I think that might work, though three people on your bed might be a bit cramped. Are there any spare folding chairs around? Maybe in the storage closet?” Sungjin offered.

 

“Yeah, that might work better,” Jae admitted. “I’ll go see if i can steal one from somewhere. If anyone else shows up you can let them in.” Sungjin agreed to this, and Jae set out to find an extra chair. After a good ten minuets of wandering around campus, trying different closets and spare rooms, he finally found an unlocked music room. He grabbed one off the rack of them in the back, and hurried back to his dorm as fast as he could before someone could ask him where he had gotten it. As he got back to his building, he noticed two figures near the door. One of them noticed him and waved, and he realized it was Wonpil. As he got closer, he realized the other one was Brian. 

 

“Jae! Hi! What are you doing with that chair?” Wonpil called as he approached, but as soon as he was close enough Jae gave him a smack on the arm.

 

“Keep it down, I had to steal this.” Jae hissed at the boy, trying to shove the chair behind him. Though in retrospect, that probably was even more obvious. Wonpil gave only an obnoxious snort in response. “Did you get here okay?” Jae asked, turning to Brian. The younger boy wasn’t worth the effort. Brian nodded.

 

“Yeah, I don’t live too far away so it wasn’t too bad. I think me and Wonpil are both a little late though.” Brian said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. Jae noticed he was wearing a faded leather jacket over a band t-shirt featuring some punk group Jae only knew a little about. His jeans were dark wash and had a few rips around the knee. It was a stark contrast to the garish uniform he had worn at the comic shop, and Jae was having a hard time wrapping his brain around how good he looked.

 

“No its fine, I am too I guess.” He replied, pulling his thoughts back in check. “We should get back to the room, Sungjin is there at least, I don’t know about Dowoon though.” The two boys nodded, and they all turned to the door. Brian reached the door first and held it open for Wonpil and him. Jae gave a half mumbled thank you, but was embarrassed at how much he liked the gesture. Soon, Jae had lead them back to his room, where he found Sungjin and Dowoon. Enthusiastic hello’s were exchanged, and soon everyone was settled in their seats. Wonpil had immediately claimed Kevin’s fancy padded office chair, Sungjin was offered the other chair by Dowoon, who had taken the folding chair from Jae. That left Jae and Brian to sit together on the bed. Brian sat cross legged, leaning back slightly, seeming completely comfortable. Jae, on the other hand, sat perched on the edge of the bed, spine straight as a rod. He had never been so tense in his own bed before. Once they were all settled, everyone collecting their dice and papers and snacks, Sungjin began the round.

 

It was an exciting two hours. Last week has mostly been preparations for the upcoming arc, buying supplies, getting backstory, and catching Brian up to speed. This week, the real adventure began. Sungjin introduced a whole cast of new characters, and as usual Wonpil tried to flirt with all of them. It was a seemingly classic story line, an NPC needed something retrieved from a dragon. The whole thing reeked of suspicion, and Jae had a feeling there was at least one plot twist coming soon. Sungjin was a master storyteller, and the arcs were always interesting. Jae suspected he planned them weeks in advance, though he’d never tell him that. At least Sungjin seemed happy there was another person around to experience his master storytelling. 

 

Brian seemed to have a good time too, he was a little less cautious than last time. He tended to agree with Jae on strategy and with Wonpil on morals. Even Dowoon, who wasn’t very outgoing with people he didn’t know, cracked a few jokes with him. Brian was becoming a member of the group faster than Jae expected. He had to be reminded of the rules less this time, and egged on Jae and Wonpil’s arguments. He had a loud, clean laugh. Jae confused his genuine laughter for sarcasm a few times, but it soon became apparent that was just the way it was. Jae found himself being more of a nuisance than usual to Wonpil in order to hear it more. 

 

The two hours flew by, and before Jae knew it the time was up. They hadn’t gotten as far as Sungjin had expected them to, probably due to the excessive amounts of story tangents and dicking around on Jae’s part. Though it was still a fun time. Sungjin always seemed to be the only one dissatisfied when the story moved slowly, and even now he wasn’t too annoyed. 

 

“You people are hopeless,” Sunjin muttered as he packed up his papers and returned them to his backpack. 

 

“It’s not my fault!” Wonpil exclaimed, pointing to the bed where Jae and Brian sat, both of them now sitting haphazardly on the bed, leaning into each other slightly as they tried to stifle their laughter. “They’re a distraction, we have to separate them.” 

 

“Hey! You’re the one who fucked up so bad.” Jae managed through his laughter. “How did you manage to critical miss twice in a row?” 

 

“Even I’m not that unlucky,” Brian added, his eyes slightly teary from laughter. 

 

“This is bulling. They’re bulling me,” Wonpil declared, glancing toward Sungjin and Dowoon for confirmation.

 

“Youre just as bad as them,” Sungjin replied. Wonpil turned to Dowoon, a look of mock hurt on his ace, but the younger boy just shrugged. “You’re traitors, I can;t believe this, taking that demon’s side.” Before Jae could make another comment to torment Wonpil any further, Sungjin spoke again. “Anyway, that was a solid start at least, you’re really getting a hang of the rules Brian.” 

 

“Thanks! I think so too, this is really fun.” Brian agreed,running his hand though his hair as he said it. “ Thanks so much for letting me join.” Jae tried not to be obvious that he was admiring how nice Brian’s hair looked when it was a little messed up, but he had a sneaking suspicion he had failed when Sunjin replied.  
“Believe me, its no trouble at all.” He said, giving Jae a pointed glance when Brian wasn’t looking. “Anyway, I’ve got to get going, midterms are in three days. And I know for a fact Wonpil has studying to do too.” He said, giving Wonpil a stern glance.

 

“A D+ wouldn’t be that bad, I could live with that,” Wonpil muttered, averting his eyes. 

 

“Come on, we should go.” He coaxed, and Wonpil reluctantly agreed. 

 

“See you nerds later,” Sungjin called back once he had collected his things.

 

“See you next week!” Brian called as everyone said their goodbyes. Then it was just them and Dowoon, who was absentmindedly scrolling though his phone. He had given a mumbled goodbye when the other two boys had left, and now seemed to realize the situation he was in. 

 

“Shit, I’ve got to go too,” Dowoon said, quickly stuffing his phone back in his pocket. 

 

“Aw, why’s that?” Brian asked, looking up from his own phone. There was an almost imperceptible pause before he replied.

 

“I have to meet my older sister for a thing, she’s for a few days.” 

 

“Oh, that’s cool. Where are you guys going this late?”

 

“Just to my apartment, she’s probably there already, I better go. Can you and Jae get the chairs and stuff on your own?”

 

“Yeah, it shouldn’t be a problem,” Jae replied. For a moment he didn’t understand why Dowoon was asking, but then he realized. He was trying to get Brian to stay in his room. Alone. Just them.

 

“Yeah, we’ve got it. You should go! Don’t let us make you late.” Brian replied cheerily.

 

“Okay, have fun kids,” Dowoon replied. Jae could have sworn he winked at him as he turned to go, but he couldn’t be sure. He glanced at Brian out of the corner of his eye. He was on his phone again, in a messaging app. Jae glanced away quickly, he didn’t want to know who he was talking to. It’s not like it mattered. He quickly got up and began pushing the chairs back into place. 

 

“I’ll help dude, you don’t have to do it all by yourself.” Brian said as Jae pushed Kevin’s chair back to his side of the room. “Here, ill take this side of the desk, you take that side. it goes there right?” Brian asked, pointing to an empty spot along the wall. 

 

“Oh, yeah, that’s it.” Jae replied moving to the opposite side of the desk. Moving it back was much easier with two people. Jae picked Kevin’s belonging’s off his own desk and tried to move them back into some kind of order, though he was sure it was probably an improvement from the way it was before, with how disorganized his roommate was. While he did this, Brian folded the stolen chair, placing it by the door. “I can return that later, the room I stole it from is probably locked by now.” Jae said, gesturing to the chair as he sat down. Brian nodded, and to his surprise, sat down next to him again on the bed. He was closer this time, maybe a foot away.

 

“This room is actually pretty nice, it makes me wish I had gone to collage.” Brian said, gazing around the small room. Jae gave a snort at this.

 

“Really? what were you expecting, its so cramped in here, especially with two people.” Jae lamented, gesturing around the space. Brian laughed.

 

“Thats part of the charm though,”

 

“I guess,” Jae replied, his tone still skeptical. 

 

“Anyway, today was really fun. Thank you again for letting me join, I hope it’s not too much trouble.” Brian said. Jae glanced up at the boy, who was fiddling with a stray thread from his jeans.

 

“Yeah, definitely, not at all.” Jae quickly replied. “We needed the fresh blood, its a nice change of pace. There’s only so many times I can steal Wonpil’s loot by myself, you know.” Brian laughed again, and Jae had to turn away again, seeing his smile made him want to smile like an idiot and he couldn’t have that happening.

 

“It’s been super cool hanging out with you,” The statement startled Jae, and he felt himself warm a little.

 

“Haha, yeah, the group’s really fun.” He replied, rubbing the back of his neck. A nervous habit he’d always had.

 

“Yeah, they are. But you’re really cool too, I’m really glad we’ve been handing out and talking so much.” 

 

If Jae was warm before he was on fire now, butterflies had exploded into his chest, frantically fluttering against his insides. He froze like a deer in the headlights, his brain unable to register the meaning behind the words. After what was probably a half second but felt like a half hour, he looked up, meeting Brian’s eyes. He was gazing up at him, his head slightly lowered, a hopefully expectant look on his face. 

“That’s, good. I feel the same way.” He found himself saying. Brian’s face lit up, a please smile spreading across his face. Just as Jae found his own mouth twisting into a stupid grin, Brian leaned over and pressed his lips gently against his own. His lips were slightly chapped, but soft, against Jae’s. He tasted like mint, and Jae wondered if he had some on him, if he planned this. Brian’s head was tilted far to the right, in an effort not to hit Jae’s glasses, his hand placed oh so geantly on Jae’s jaw. The kiss only lasted a few seconds, and Jae was embarrassingly disappointed when Brian pulled away. His face hovered a few inches away, his eyes searching Jae’s own. He was almost too distracted by having Brian so close to him to respond. “Wow,” was all he managed to mumble. Brian laughed softly, and Jae was so enamored by this he leaned in and gave him another quick kiss on the mouth.

 

“We should do this again,” Brian said, his voiced hushed, as he was still just inches away from the other boy.

 

“I’d like that a lot.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Bonus: Brian’s texts probably

 

Brian: hes so cute fuck  
Wooyoung: just  
Wooyoung: fuck him already  
Wooyoung: stop complaining to me  
Brian: I’m trying  
Brian: were on his bed together   
Brian: Update: everyone just left  
Wooyoung: well thats step 1  
Wooyoung: hows it going tiger  
Wooyoung: ?  
Brian: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
Wooyoung: dude its been like a half hour  
Brian: mission accomplished!!!!!!!  
Wooyoung: wow  
Wooyoung: would you look at that  
Wooyoung: who knew D&D would get you laid  
Wooyoung: how do you play again?


End file.
